Representation by Dawn Powell
- Date submitted
- 16 February 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Dear Planning Inspectorate, I am objecting to the Cottam solar project for the following reasons. This giant solar farm of 3,000 acres is just one of four massive proposals in a very concentrated part of West Lindsey, Lincolnshire. These are outrageous propositions that would dominate the beautiful landscape and would convert this part of the UK from the rural food producing "Bread Basket of the Nation" to an weird industrial eyesore that neither fits in with the surroundings or gives the country the power generating security it really needs. Is this a fair trade off for this massive and permanent land loss? (40 to 60 years) Farming communities would be significantly impacted, full time jobs would be lost from many parts of agriculture's employment chain. The old power stations of the region offered thousands of highly skilled full time jobs both on site and into the local community. These solar farms will offer nothing but transient construction work and an extremely small number of staff. So in essence West Lindsey loses its jobs and its countryside! I do not think this fits in with the Government's vision of levelling up the nation. The solar panel height of 4.5 metres is abhorrent. Much of Cottam Solar Project is on rolling countryside and would be highly visible from the Lincoln cliff road, the panel glare while driving North would distract drivers highlighting the sheer scale of the proposal. Health and Safety should be the number one priority for anything we do. Suggesting that planting new hedges would mitigate the visibility of these solar wastelands is absurd. It would take 15 years+ and would be next to useless for 6 months of the year. The landscape would become stagnant and depressing, the established eco systems destroyed on a large scale. It is disturbing that in addition to the thousands of solar panels filling the fields there would be a massive 600mw battery compound, sited off the single track lane near the village of Willingham by Stow, with even more BESS in the locality for the other 3 solar proposals. This is not the right place for potentially dangerous chemical batteries. The proposal strangely has many individual parcels of land often close to local residents homes. Siting these solar farms so close to rural properties is a discriminatory and ill-considered land grab. Locals feel powerless and frustrated at this unfair treatment and the bully-boy tactics used by the developers. This is not acceptable and totally avoidable. The whole proposal appears a desperate land grab and is badly designed. Cottam solar project is many miles away from the Grid connection at the ex Cottam power station in Nottinghamshire. Surely this would be a logical place to start with a solar farm, not in the countryside and across a major river? With reducing yields due to dry Summers, fertilizer shortages, a war in the Ukraine and an ever increasing demand for new housing surely low performance solar parks on vast acerages of farmland would be quite wrong? Solar panels should and must be located in more sensible places, such as rooftops and brownfields. Please give these giant solar farm proposals due consideration. Thank you,